HC quashes Moga MLAs appointment as PSWC chairman

Punjab and Haryana high court quashes appointment of Moga MLA Joginder Pal Jain as chairman of Punjab State Warehousing Corporation (PSWC) on the grounds that it was not a bonafide one and as mandated under statute he was not first made the director of Corporation.

Punjab government had earlier retained Joginder Pal Jain as chairman of the Punjab State Warehousing Corporation (PSWC).

The high court directed the state government to reconsider its decision of Jain's appointment in December last year.

In its order dated January 7, 1992, a Delhi trial court had sentenced Jain to one-year imprisonment for using a forged passport when he was caught on January 19, 1988, by the immigration authorities before moving to Hong Kong via Bangkok, for possessing a passport that was in the name of Mohan Lal on which Jain's photograph was pasted.

During the arguments, when asked by the court on advocate general Ashok Aggarwal's earlier stand that Jain had handed him over the resignation, he said, "His resignation is always in my pocket, even today. I stand by what I had said on the last date of hearing." He said this had been done as "I do not want a public man to face ignominy of an adverse order coming from the high court."

Aggarwal maintained that despite his conviction in a case, Jain was eligible to hold the post of chairman. The order passed by financial commissioner development, Punjab, on September 13, submitted to the court on Monday, reads, "Having considered the material before the government with regard to the criminal cases lodged/pending/decided against Joginder Pal Jain, the state government allows the continuation of Jain as director of the state warehousing corporation and also as chairman of the state warehousing corporation as notified vide a letter dated December 27, 2012."

The petitioner had also raised the issue before the court that before appointment of a person as chairman of PSWC, it was necessary to appoint him as a director first. Whereas the copy of the order issued by the Punjab chief minister on December 27, 2012, from camp office in New Delhi, had directed financial commissioner (development), "Joginder Pal Jain, resident of Moga, is appointed as chairman of Punjab Warehousing Corporation…formal order in this regard be issued immediately."